Youngster makes splash with silver at national swimming championships

A youngster from Rickmansworth has scooped a silver medal in a national swimming championships.

Devesh Kapoor won the prestigious medal at the Swim England National Summer Championships 2018 held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, in the 200 Butterfly event in the 15 Years age group.

All the events carry significance but for Devesh the challenge of winning 200fly, which is categorised as the toughest race, is particularly alluring.

Devesh said: “It is nice to win a medal at such an elite competition. It makes you more confident and you go into the races knowing you are capable of winning. It pushes me on, so it was quite special.”

Devesh trained under the coach Kelvin Jones at Watford swimming club. Kelvin was delighted with Devesh’s performance at the competition, giving a personal best of five seconds.

Kelvin said: “Devesh trains very hard both in the pool and gym. He sets himself targets and it is pleasing to see him achieving these targets regularly. After a tricky start to the season, it is nice to see him enjoy the sport and achieve the results he truly deserves.”

Devesh trains 15 hours a week which involves swimming two hours every day, one hour in the morning twice a week and additional hours of land training.

Devesh qualified for British nationals in the 200fly event last year but had a really challenging start to the swimming season due to health issues. He had to withdraw from most events at Herts county champs due to sickness and viral fever.

It took some time for him to recover physically and mentally. It tested his resolute and strength of his character to bounce back in form and prepare for the summer Nationals.

Devesh has an ambition to make it to the Team GB to complete at Olympics one day.

He said: “Olympics is the biggest sporting event on the planet and you always have in the back of your mind a dream to represent Great Britain. A dream I want to chase, it motivates me to keep working hard.”